However, the big question is whether or not the company has really created a business tool or if they are just using the ThinkPad brand to latch onto a market that has already been established.  After all, once the iPad came out plenty of tablet creators added ‘pad’ to their devices’ names in an attempt to establish brand recognition (ViewPad, TouchPad, EeePad, etc).

However, ThinkPad is unique in the fact that it has long been a Lenovo brand used for its large range of laptops so the fact that they have continued to use the name to branch out into the tablet market is not all that surprising.

What is surprising is the fact that instead of replicating the iPad the resulting device titled the ThinkPad Tablet actually looks more like a bigger version of the Playbook by Blackberry given its soft matte appearance, its stocky look, and its casual understated look that appears to be sturdier than the flimsy iPad or even Kindle Fire.

Anyone who first takes a look at the blunt layout of the ThinkPad is going to automatically assume it runs off of Windows 7 mobile because the tablet has a Windows look, but in fact it actually runs on Honeycomb or Android 3.1.  However, the real features of Honeycomb are not packaged very well because the Nvidia Tegra 2 dual core processor is a bit sluggish and the device lags a lot even for simple tasks such as scrolling across websites or switching between the various home pages.  In other words, imagine browsing on the original iPhone and you will have a feel for how frustrating this device can be at times.

This is a surprise given the fact that the Tegra 2 should not be quite this slow and neither should Honeycomb, but most likely Lenovo’s additions to the interface have slowed down its processing speeds because several benchmark tests against the device prove that the hardware is not to blame.  This in itself is the hugest disappointment with the Lenovo ThinkPad because in terms of specs a consumer would think they are getting a much better product than they actually do once all is said and done.

The largest modification that Lenovo made is to the home screen which features a five icon grid with each icon loading a different app such as a movie player or e-reader depending on what a reader chooses to set the shortcuts to. Prominently featured in the middle of the factory settings is a globe that allows the user to launch the Android browser with two smaller icons on the sides that allow a user to change the launch and the actual OS settings, but all of this seems a little overkill, especially since the best use of the tablet is with a stylus that could allow the user plenty of other navigational options.

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Those whizz kids who beaver away within the gilded walls of Samsung have quickly sorted it out in time for the release of the Galaxy 7.7 and installed the quaintly named Honeycomb, AKA android 3.2. The screen is, not surprisingly, 7.7” long, and is a convenient and compact screen for the weary traveler who is hungry for their Facebook fix.

It is also a world away from the cumbersome 10.1 tab that Samsung has been recently hawking. It has the Super AMOLED + display, which Samsung never tire of telling us how wonderful it is, and who can blame them when the 1280x800mp allow the device to deliver what they at Samsung Towers described in their press release as  having brilliant and high contrasting colors and a crystal clear and crisp viewing experience.

These claims, as grandiose as they are, have been backed up by the reception the 7.7’s screen when it was revealed in Berlin at the IFA 2011 last week, and all hands on parties in attendance gave it a huge thumbs up. It’s a great relief to know that this tab isn’t all beauty and no substance like its predecessor.

Under the bonnet of the 7.7 is a nifty 1.4GHz dual-core processor, which they have promised will deliver super-fast web navigation and loading, program multi-tasking, and the highest quality audio and video playback. Due to this device having the pleasure of the company of the Honeycomb, the entire internet experience will be vastly improved, and have options such as multi tabbing.

Having Flash capabilities will also allow for a much improved and superior web surfing experience to that which existed on the Tab 7, and there will also be access to the impressive Android apps store. Along the same lines, the 7.7 also allows the user access to all of the Samsung Hubs which offer music, books and games to those owners with access to them.

There is a library of over 15m songs, 2000 newspapers and 3000 magazines, a real bonus for those who have managed to avoid purchasing an iPod, a DS or a Kindle. This tab is also an aesthetic delight, and the appearance is really something special, if tabs were supermodel, the 7.7 would be ‘The Body’, Elle McPherson.

The slick aluminum case and dimensions of only 197x133x8mm and the wait of a bird at only 335g, it will fit perfectly into the smallest of hands. Samsung are also claiming that despite the 7.7 being diminutive, the battery life is in no way affected and you will still get 10 hours of playback time. This may all turn out to be codswallop of course, but it certainly sounds good.

Whatever  the final results are, this is a great offering, although the chances of any other device ever usurping the power of the iPad is next to zero, the 7.7 clearly shows that there are good alternatives for those who aren’t enamored with Apple’s products.

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Caseable carries an impressive range of images you can use in the design of your iPad jacket, and to personalise it even further you can even upload images of your own. The book jacket for the iPad takes DIY to the extreme by allowing you to add your own branding, logo or any other words that you want on your case.

The Caseable book jacket for the iPad offers serious protection for your device, as both the front and back covers are of the thickness that you would find on the covers of scrapbooks, and they are extremely rigid.  On the right of the case is the tablet holder, and the iPad is secured by four strong band which secure your device in place at the corners.

The iPad feels extremely secure when held by these bands, and by using the corners as the secure points the majority of the tablets buttons and ports are still accessible. As the Caseable book jacket isn’t form fitting, it will secure both the iPad and iPad 2, and any other tablet that is similar size to the iPad.

Testing has shown that the following tablets will not fit into the Caseable book jacket; both the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 and the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 were too long for the jacket, while the Sony Tablet S was fine lengthways, but is too thick at one side to be secured.

The inside of the book jacket has a soft and grippy feel to it, and the material is like microsuede. Depending on how you customise your cover design, the interior color will either match or contrast. This sturdy cover will certainly protect your iPad from any nasty objects lurking in a backpack or bag that could otherwise bump, scratch or poke your device. Should you happen to drop your tablet it’s also a pretty good shock absorber.

Also inside the case there is a handy slot for documents where you can papers and if you like to use a stylus with your tablet, there is a holder where your stylus will sit neatly beside your tablet. The case also benefits from perfect strong stitching, and a long elastic band comes around the front cover to secure it.

One of the Caseable book jacket for the iPad’s most attractive features is the way in which you can create your own design from the comprehensive range of shapes, patterns, photos, typography and paintings. Whilst the range isn’t the largest amongst the DIY case producers, it is certainly diverse with a wide range of interesting styles and bold colors, and each one is unique.

The web based design tool that Caseable offers makes creating your own book jacket very easy, as it helps you to select the basic design and then you simply add your own touches, such as your photos, patterns and lettering. You can also reposition and resize the different elements to create a totally unique cover. One of the testers chose an American car design and then added their logo, and found the process quick and easy.

Overall, this is an excellent product that delivers what it promises, and the only buttons you may have to play around a bit to access once it is secured in place are the screen lock and volume on the side, but this really isn’t a problem.

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ThinkPad Tablet Ready for the boardroom review

There is nothing exciting anymore about Android tablets and let’s be honest, they are now a dime a dozen. So what can be brought to the market to make a product really stand out? The folks behind the new ThinkPad tablet from Lenovo think they have it sussed, and they are bringing us a tablet with special features, professional styling and a sturdy construction that are quite unique, in a nutshell, it’s time for Android to hit the boardroom.

The ThinkPad tablet sticks to the familiar black styling of their notebooks, and while it is a bit heavier than other tablets, you don’t get solid construction like this without it carrying a bit of extra weight. The attention detail is, as you would expect, exemplary throughout, from the buttons under the screen that are covered in corning gorilla glass, to the solid casing. This is the professionals tablet without a doubt.

Whilst the ThinkPad’s specs are pretty typical on the whole, Lenovo have included special features to ensure their tablet stands out in the crowd. The biggest one is using an N-Trig dual function digitizer, and this allows an optional pen input to be used on the screen, as well as the normal multi touch, when not in use the pen rests neatly in a silo on the tablet.

Lenovo have also thoughtfully put a full SD slot into the Thinkpad, as well as a USB port where you attach the portfolio case, which is optional. This port can also be used by standard USB flash drives when you want to exchange files, although this can also be done via the SD slot. Whilst the 10.1” IPS isn’t the brightest out there, it has several viewing angles which are outstanding, and a very good feature for a tablet.

The front facing camera is decent enough for video chatting and although the speaker is nothing special, it is rather loud for a tablet. Another rarity on a Honeycomb tablet is the four hardware buttons that the ThinkPad has underneath the screen, for use in the portrait orientation. These are Browser launcher, lock screen rotation, a home and a back button. These are rigid and take some pressing, so many will probably continue to use the screen.

Apart for the front facing 2MP camera on the ThinkPad, there is also one on the back which is 5MP. The one at the front delivers decent video chatting on Google Talk, and the rear camera is best described as adequate, but let’s be honest, a tablet is not purchased for its cameras, and people will continue to snap with their smartphones.

The way the ThinkPad is constructed makes it easily the most rugged tablet on the market, and while the 1.6lb weight might sound a lot, it feels really comfortable and solid in your hand.

Lenovo have made no secret of the fact that the ThinkPads target market are the enterprise workers, and the software that comes with it as standard clearly reflect this. There is plenty of entertainment apps obviously, such as Netflix, Angry Birds, Slacker, kindle etc, but this tablet comes loaded with apps for the business person. Computrace, LANDesk, Citrix Receiver and a full version of Documents to Go are all here, amongst others.

Lenovo have also tweaked the Honeycomb 3.1 OS somewhat, and have customised it to include a favourite apps wheel for instant access to your most used apps and also a home screen launcher. Lenovo also have their own app shop, which is invariable front and centre, and offers apps which the company has deemed suitable and appropriate for their ThinkPad.

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Now, three years on, it has to be said that we missed the significance of what exactly was going on, and we know realise that this ultra-laptop was merely ahead of its time, and seems to have been where the future lay all along. The latest model for 2011 is the perfect reiteration of what Apple was trying to tell us in 2008, but what seemed like complete madness back then now seems to be the natural evolution in the life of a laptop.

What you will notice first off is that is springs into life in seconds, and while they may not sound particularly thrilling, all those who have sat for several minutes for Windows to come to life will know exactly how significant this is. This is thanks to using SSD for storage as opposed the usual configuration of the harddrive.

This latest Air is aesthetically identical to the update from 2010, which was the lightest configuration of a laptop we had ever seen, but still retaining the high Apple standards of quality of build and, of course, ease of use. The main additions this year are the serious increase in horsepower thanks to Intel’s Sandybridge CPU, and Thunderbolt, the high speed I/O interface.

While the 13 inch model has a card reader which its 11 inch sibling lacks, it’s hardly a major defect. Both have two USB ports, a webcam that isn’t HD, and a headphone jack, and that’s about it for the external features. The resolution of the screen comes in at an impressive 1366 X 76, which is perfect for viewing videos and 3D graphics.

The MacBook Air also comes loaded with a brand spanking new OSX Lion OS, and from the inception, it is clearly obvious that Apple designed this machine to combine with Lion. You can do everything from navigating web pages to launching apps with the fabulous multi-touch track pad.

The intuitive navigation is a joy to use thanks to this, and with the reintroduction of a backlight on the keyboard, the whole laptop experience is efficient and fresh again. Many of the apps run now in full screen mode; and this more than makes up for the small size of the display and switching between them only takes a swipe of the track pad.

While the actual keyboard is standard Apple fare it is still one of the best around, and the fact that they can put such well-spaced out keys on a machine this size is very impressive. Now, even with all the kudos so far, if Apple hadn’t addressed the major deficiencies in this new machine, this review would be winding up about now. However, they have got their act together and the multicore processors from Intel have improved the Air no end.

The speed of everything from multitasking, opening apps and even Photoshop is phenomenal, and with the InDesign CS5 running along with the HD video and Pages the Air barely pauses for breath. The full HD 1080 resolution shows movies with intense clarity and the only time is slowed slightly was with Final Cut X and some games. In other words, the new standard for laptops has been set, and the other manufacturers must be green with envy.

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Those who are familiar with the Playbook will recognize some of the specs for the Kindle Fire as it shares the same ODM and also will come with a dual core SoC that is said to reach speeds of up to 1GHz.  Disappointedly however, it will only have 8GB of storage and 512MB of memory although given the fact that word docs hardly take up room this should be sufficient enough for most e-readers.

Given the fact that the new tablet is mainly going to be focused on Amazon’s reading crowd, it is not too surprising that there will not be a camera, 3G, or even a microSD slot, but it would be nice given the fact that it would allow the ereader tablet to become more of a multi-tasking unit that could give it a wider customer base.  It does include a custom Android web browser and free cloud storage for users to sync with their Amazon cloud as well as access to the silk browser from Amazon which allows for plenty of browsing and purchasing possibilities.

Technical specs are not what most people are concerned with however, as the larger criticism surrounding the Kindle Fire is the fact that the tablet will work as a middle man between browsers and the web with the data centres of Amazon actually pre-loading all web pages before they show up on the gadget.  This means that Amazon could track users’ movements if they wished.

Founder and CEO of Amazon defends the technology claiming that the ‘split browser’ will allow users much quicker access while on the go compared to other mobile devices and will also reduce the amount of processing that needs to take place on the actual device helping to lengthen the battery life.  Given the fact that battery life is only expected to be about seven hours, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

However, the split browsing function will allow the Amazon data system to track every web page that is visited which could be used for advertising purposes and called upon by intelligence agencies and police that want to launch investigations into suspicious behaviour.

The browser, called Amazon Silk simply does not offer reassurance to users that their information will be kept private given the fact that all web addresses will be logged and information could potentially be held for up to thirty days according to the terms and conditions that come with using it.

This system could also cause a problem for websites that log IP addresses and track users patterns to determine what they purchase and browse as all addresses will be IP logs from Amazon confusing their ability to predict their high target traffic.

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The Playbook has connectivity by the bucketload. As well as being equipped with  WiFi and 3G, it allows Blackberry customers to use their existing service plan for full 3G access. A Blackberry smartphone can also pair with the Playbook via Bluetooth for full access to Email, calendar, documents and Blackberry Messenger. There’s a microUSB port, and an HDMI socket for HD video output. It’s ahead of the curve as an imaging device too. It doesn’t just play back 1080p video, it shoots it too, through its rear-mounted 5MP camera, while a front-facing 3MP cam handles video chat. In the pad computing war, the Blackberry Playbook may be the secret weapon. Hurry to buy your own PlayBook and other Expansys tablet PCs for fast delivery at killer prices.

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To start, you should head to the shop so that you can actually see a few of the laptop computer brands that you have in mind.  Even if you plan to buy something such as an Acer laptop online so that you can secure a better deal, it is a good idea to actually see a model before you purchase it so you get a feel for its size and weight.  While at the shop try picking up the different models so that you can see which ones feel sturdy and solid without being too heavy.

Next  you will want to try out the keyboard on each laptop that you are interested in because you will never be able to soup this item up or replace it (unless you are replacing it with the same model and piece).  Make sure that you like the feel of the spread as you type and that you are comfortable with the way it responds to your touch.

You should do the same thing with the mouse pad and track pad depending on what the Acer laptop or other laptop has.  There are slight differences to these aspects in different models and some are awkward to some people while others are much comfortable.

The next thing you will want to look closely at is the display screen resolution and the size.  As a current rule of thumb screen resolution will be between 800 x 600 and 1600 x 1200.  The higher the ratio the more pixels and the better the screen image so if you want a clear screen you will want to aim higher.

Remember that a laptop is an investment that you should plan on using for at least three years, so if the laptop computer does not appeal now it is likely not the best choice even for the value.  This is because the long term value will not hold up.

Finally, check and make sure that the laptop computer has at least two USB ports and a wireless network card.  On computers such as Acer laptop models this is pretty standard, but there are some laptops that still lack these capabilities and you will not want to pay for these items.  Other items to check include DVD burner, Bluetooth if needed, and the overall RAM and memory on the model.

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Laptops are becoming increasingly popular as a mobile alternative to the more traditional desktop PC and whether you are buying one for work or pleasure, it is vital that you buy the laptop that ticks all the boxes as far as you are concerned. The power of laptops continues to increase at an astonishing rate as technological advancements make more powerful laptops cheaper than they have ever been. A similar level of performance and features previously only found in desktops is now found within many laptops as well making them the ideal solution for many customers. But when buying a new laptop there are many points to consider, from the battery life to the size and resolution of the screen and of course the cost.

The first choice you have to make is what operating system you want to be installed on the machine and whether you want go for the more widely used Microsoft Windows or Apple’s Mac OS, both of which have their own advantages and disadvantages. The battery life of the laptop is also an important factor to consider, as if you plan to use your new laptop on the move for a considerable amount of time then a battery life of over five hours is worth investing in. If you are looking for an ultra portable machine then a netbook may better suit your needs than a laptop, as netbooks are smaller and lighter and ideal for people who are constantly on the move, as well as being a cheaper alternative.

John Lewis has a wide range of laptops on their site that cover a wide price range. A decent entry level laptop will set you back around £400, but if you have a bit more money to spend then a high performing machine can cost upwards of £1,000. Each manufacturer from Sony to Acer manufactures laptops that cover the broad spectrum of different performance levels, and each make of laptop is distinct in its design. There are some minimum requirements when it comes to buying a laptop that will provide most customers with a decent starting point. For your laptop to run smoothly when completing everyday tasks it is advised that you buy a machine with at least 2GB of RAM and if you want plenty of space to store your music, photos and videos then 320GB of hard drive space is a good benchmark.

How you plan to use your laptop should also influence the decision on how big a screen you want your laptop to have. If you think you will be watching a lot of movies on your machine then a 17 inch screen will give a large display, whereas if you want your laptop to be more portable then a 12 inch screen may suit your needs much better. The ports on your laptop are another important feature, with most laptops having a number of USB ports that are needed for connecting external devices, and if you want to connect your laptop to your HDTV then make sure your machine of choice has an HDMI out port. So how you plan to use your laptop and whether you are buying it for business or personal use will greatly affect the machine that you choose to purchase, and John Lewis has an extensive range of laptops and netbooks to suit every budget.

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